White Pepper is coming back to life after hibernating for over two years. Cleaning or rather mold abatement with vinegar has taken all week. Jan and I put a new coat of bottom paint on in only 4 days of back breaking labor. The propane system had to be coaxed back to life (rusty solenoid). There is mold all over the deck and lines. About half of the interior lights are out, but they all need to be replaced with LED anyway. The head (potty) works well at least.
Despite all of the hard work we have some neat new toys to play with.
The most laborious chores on the boat for both of us is raising the main sail and getting the dingy on board. Getting the mainsail up is such a hassle that sometimes we just don't do it. This can be a danger as when transiting the gap, etc. To address this problem which only gets worse every year we have installed an electric winch on the starboard coach roof. It is an Andersen stainless steel 40 self tailer with a single speed motor installed underneath. Sadler Point Marina did the installation and carpenter Kenny built an an attractive wooden box to hide the motor. The switch was installed at the pedestal so that Jan can control the motor while keeping the boat pointed upwind. (For non-sailors the main sail will only go up when the boat is pointed directly upwind.)
Incredible Andersen 40
Other chores for this winch will be to lift the dingy, Habenero, onto the fore deck using the starboard spinnaker halyard. This chore still requires remarkable agility by Karl on the fore deck wrestling a nine foot two hundred pound dingy, especially if the wind is blowing at all. But at least now it will not require manual labor by Jan grinding up the beast. Finally, the winch will let Jan winch me up the mast which was impossible previously. Having me winch Jan up the mast resulted in the very cute posts of her waving from aloft when the halyards tangled at Little Farmers Cay Bahamas April 2011.
We bit the bullet and had a new cabin sole installed to replace the incredibly scarred and worn old one. (Non sailors will recognize the cabin sole as a floor; sailors know that the floors on a boat are the cross members of the foundation.)
Aphrodite enjoying her new cabin sole
The Navtec hydraulic back stay adjuster was replaced with a mechanical stainless steel ratcheting mechanism from Wichard. The Navtec is just not reliable enough for cruising. It leaks and when the fluid is gone, you are helpless. The whole story is so sorry. Only Navtec has the seals and the tools to install them with leak proof (sort of) results. However, Navtec is out of business. Sending the unit to Hydraulics-R-Us just won't cut it. So the whole $2500.+ apparatus is junk. The Wichard unit, however, looks and works great.
Ratcheting Back Stay Adjuster by Wichard
Minor issued addressed were nipping up the genoa halyard which had become frayed over the years. Failure of this line in a remote area would be catastrophic. And finally we had a chock installed at the base of the mast to allow the spinnaker/whisker pole to be stored and deployed from the mast. The last trip out convinced me that a spinnaker is not reasonable for a powerful 41 foot boat double handed. But there are many opportunities for wing and wing sailing downwind in the Bahamas esp. in the Spring. Not having to wrestle the pole off the deck and onto the mast will allow us to take advantage of those opportunities.
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